#40
The banquet hall, which had been drowned in darkness, blazed as bright as noon in an instant.
But Doyeong's calculations didn't end there.
The moonlight pouring in didn't reach the floor. Instead, it struck the “reflecting mirror” on the wall whose angle Doyeong had calculated in advance.
Ching!
The light hit the first mirror and refracted.
Ching!
Passing through the chandelier's crystals, the light amplified.
Chaaang-!
The intense beam, refracted three times, shot like a laser and struck Blad's face square-on where he stood at the center of the hall.
[Kraaaagh-!! The light...!! My eyes!!]
Blad screamed and clutched his face.
The red barrier around his body that had kept him in an invincible state shattered and crumbled away with a crackle, like glass breaking. Black smoke curled up, and Blad shifted into his “materialized state.”
At the same time, the door of the cage holding Ihyeon opened with a clang.
“Wow, my ramyeon water isn't even boiling yet.”
Ihyeon couldn't close his mouth.
It hadn't been a coincidence. From the very start, Doyeong had calculated everything, the position of that mirror, the boss's attack speed, even the blast radius of the mana bolt, and lured out the attack.
And he'd done it with nothing but a low-level floating stone he'd picked up earlier, turning the boss's own power back against him.
“Now! Get your damage in!”
Doyeong's urgent shout cut straight through the headset.
Faster than Ihyeon's brain, his instincts as a gamer reacted first.
“Got it.”
Ihyeon's fingers flew across the keyboard as if dancing.
“My turn now.”
The archangel, freed from the cage, spread all six of its wings wide. The Arrogance stacks hadn't built up, so he couldn't deal maximum damage, but it didn't matter. His mood was at its absolute peak right now.
You dare to cage me and threaten what's mine?
“Die.”
A blue aura condensed on Ihyeon's fist until it looked ready to burst.
[Overload Smash]
Kwaaaang-!!!
Ihyeon's fist plunged deep into Blad's solar plexus. The impact felt different. A thick vibration rippled up from his fingertips, delivering a rush of pleasure.
[Critical!]
[Fatal Strike!]
[Damage: 9,999,999+]
Blad couldn't even scream.
“The real body's underwhelming.”
Blinded by the light and impaled by the fist, the boss broke apart pixel by pixel and vanished.
[System: Blood Count Blad defeated!]
A splendid fanfare rang out and the experience bar shot up. At the same moment, the two of them were transported to a swampland. Updating the story must have relocated them.
But Ihyeon's gaze didn't linger even a second on the glittering legendary-grade item that had dropped to the floor. He stepped over the boss's corpse , approaching Doyeong, who was calmly tucking a floating stone away in the corner.
“Hyung.”
“Nice work. Went down in one shot, huh?”
Doyeong shrugged as if he couldn't be bothered. At that, Ihyeon's character moved to block Doyeong's path. Ihyeon's face zoomed in, filling the screen uncomfortably close.
“What was that just now?”
“What was what?”
“The light-reflecting thing. How'd you know? You said you didn't even look at a guide.”
“Oh, that? The angle of the ceiling mirror was just too perfect. When you play three-cushion billiards, don't you read the trajectory? The path going in and the path bouncing back were both dead honest.”
Doyeong answered flatly. Ihyeon looked back and forth between Doyeong's character on the screen and Doyeong himself on the cam, expressionless, chin propped in his hand.
His mouth went dry.
It wasn't the gear, and it wasn't thanks to a guide. This was a guy who carved out a path with nothing but sheer instinct.
The calculator in Ihyeon's head spun. You could run a hundred trillion simulations and still never predict a variable like this.
...Yeah, I'm certain.
Ihyeon pushed his tongue against the inside of his cheek. Conviction settled in. This wasn't just curiosity.
The longer time passed, the more perfectly the reason he had to make this man his own proved itself out.
What this man showed him was far more thrilling than anything he'd bought with money.
“Hyung.”
“What now.”
Ihyeon whispered in a languid voice, though his eyes alone glinted like a beast's.
“I've been thinking, and I'm honestly considering putting a little investment into you, hyung. Feels like you'd hit the jackpot if you went public.”
“Quit talking nonsense and pick up the loot. Can't you see the gold lying there?”
Doyeong was too busy scooping up the gold that had dropped on the floor. Even that indifference felt absolutely perfect to Ihyeon. Doyeong recoiled in disgust and backed away, but Ihyeon didn't care.
“Hyung, what's the next map? I won't look at a guide again. You design the whole thing.”
“You're such a pain, seriously... Do you not have hands or feet? You said you're ranked number one.”
“You're my brains, hyung. I'll just throw punches however you tell me to. It's way more fun that way.”
There was unmistakable delight woven into Ihyeon's voice. It was the first night that a man who only ever checked the results had gripped the wheel himself.
“Well, as long as it's fun, I guess.”
Doyeong took the lead with practiced ease. The hem of his old robe dragged through the mud, but Doyeong didn't mind. Getting dirt on his boots during fieldwork was just an everyday thing.
That was when it happened. Doyeong stopped walking and opened his inventory.
“Oh, right. I never checked what dropped after we killed that guy.”
“Would it be anything special? He's the guy who went around wearing that tacky cape.”
Ihyeon replied indifferently, sweeping his eyes over the rotting-wood textures around them with a look of revulsion. But Doyeong's reaction was a little different.
“Huh? Get a load of this.”
Doyeong pulled up the item info in the shared window.
[Costume: Blood Sovereign's Banquet Attire]
- Grade: Unique (appearance-altering equipment)
- Description: A velvet cape and suit set that Blood Count Blad treasured. When worn, a noble (or greasy) elegance overflows.
- Option: Movement speed +15% during [Night] hours.
“Move speed 15%? That's insane.”
Doyeong's eyes sparkled. In any game, “movement speed” ties directly into survival. And even with the night-hours condition attached, 15% was a figure you'd struggle to pull even from a paid cash-shop item.
“Hyung, don't tell me you're going to wear that.”
Ihyeon sensed an ominous premonition and asked hurriedly.
“Why? The option's good. And the map's set to night right now anyway.”
“No, the option's not the problem, look at the design. That tacky blood-red velvet with the gold-foil trim... Looks like a stage costume for some '70s trot singer.”
“Doesn't matter. What matters is not dying and getting there fast.”
Doyeong didn't hesitate. In the face of efficiency, aesthetic sense was a luxury.
He immediately right-clicked with his mouse and hit the [Equip] button.
Pong-.
With a crisp sound effect, red smoke billowed up around Doyeong's character.
And the moment the smoke cleared.
Ihyeon doubted his own monitor. He even forgot to breathe for a second.
On the screen stood a bizarre and... strangely adorable creature.
Doyeong's character was fundamentally a chibi-proportioned rabbit Beastkin. A small, round little body with droopy lop ears.
The problem was that the costume had been fitted to the proportions of Blad, a “human-type figure of eight-head-tall proportions.” Sure, the game system automatically adjusted the size to match the race, but this item seemed to have failed miserably at that proportion adjustment.
Doyeong's tiny torso was bundled up tight in the dark-red tailcoat, like a gift-wrapped parcel.
The stylish cape that had reached down to Blad's ankles became a blanket dragging across the floor when Doyeong wore it.
The crowning glory was the “collar.”
The collar that Blad had stood up in sharp points not only completely covered the rabbit's short neck, it forcibly shoved Doyeong's ears up on both sides, standing them straight.
The cute lop ears that had been drooping were now pressed by the stiff collar into a forced upright position.
And wedged in the middle of it all was a rabbit face with blank dot eyes (●_●).
“...Feels a little tight.”
Doyeong wriggled his character as if uncomfortable. Each time he did, the enormous velvet cape dragging across the floor swept up the swamp mud like a broom.
“A little?”
A wheezing sound leaked out of Ihyeon's mouth.
“...You laughing?”
“No, pfft, no... hahahahaha!”
In the end Ihyeon couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing, slapping the desk.
“I'm dying, seriously. Hyung, go look in a mirror. What even is that. You're not a vampire, you look like a rabbit that got kidnapped and hauled off by a vampire.”
“Shut up. As long as my move speed's faster, it's fine.”
Ihyeon was normally a neat freak who shuddered at anything “ugly and shoddy.” By his aesthetics, that cheap velvet texture and tacky gold-foil trim deserved to be chucked straight into the trash.
But.
If what was inside was the real deal, that was a different story.
“Ah, seriously... it's annoying but it's cute.”
Unable to wipe the laughter off his face, Ihyeon hammered the screenshot key.
Click, click, click.
gripping a camera and snapping photos.
“Hey! Don't take pictures! That's a violation of my likeness rights!”
“Hold still. Let me see the back too. Did the tail come out?”
Ihyeon rotated the camera angle to check behind Doyeong.
Through the slit at the back of the enormous cape, a round white rabbit tail poked out. With every step, the hem of the cape wiggled, covering and revealing the tail by turns.
“Haah...”
Ihyeon dragged a hand down his face and let out a deep sigh.
